shellcraker

besides a crappie, redear are my favorite fish to chase. i hammer em pretty good in late April thru May and maybe a little in june. but i cant find em, at least in any kind of concentration. later in the summer and fall. i basically go after em two ways one is slow reeling a trout magnet the other is some kind of tiny dark brown or orange bait on a 8-10 inch dropshot rig just dragging it across the bottom. i know these things gotta eat year round but i cant do much with em except the spawn. any ideas.:banghead

I love fishing for red ear.....this time of year I find them on the bottom in deep water....red worms work the best for me.

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Originally Posted by murdok

besides a crappie, redear are my favorite fish to chase. i hammer em pretty good in late April thru May and maybe a little in june. but i cant find em, at least in any kind of concentration. later in the summer and fall. i basically go after em two ways one is slow reeling a trout magnet the other is some kind of tiny dark brown or orange bait on a 8-10 inch dropshot rig just dragging it across the bottom. i know these things gotta eat year round but i cant do much with em except the spawn. any ideas.:banghead

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You know the old guides in Alabama used to call them “The mystery fish”. After spring they are very hard to find. I chase them and one has to have a lot of patience fishing for them this time of year. I do the same as you.....try to find a point that has a lot of muscle shells on the bank and drops off to deeper water......I will also do the dragging along the edge of a weed line in 14-20 feet of water. I’m going to start after them as soon as these storms get on out of here for a few days. I’ve found that the older I get the tougher it is for me to fish for them in summer....the heat beats down on you.....and when the bite is slow it is hard for me to keep doing that....LOL.

Regards


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Originally Posted by Alphahawk

I’ve found that the older I get the tougher it is for me to fish for them in summer....the heat beats down on you.....and when the bite is slow it is hard for me to keep doing that....LOL.

Regards


Sent from my iPad using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

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Amen to that .
I’m having trouble finding any friends that want to get up early enough to get on the water by daylight . From daylight to around noon is about it around here .
That’s why I bank fish public water right now . I usually get out there by 9 and fish till noon . Eat lunch and wait for the afternoon thunderstorms to start .
The shellcracker is the strongest pulling Panfish that swims . I caught a handsize one earlier this week . Tried to take a picture with him laying across my open hand . He flipped. Stuck the Trout Magnet in my thumb and finned me on the big toe before flopping back into the water . Must have been a shy one :-) . >}}}}}}> Gillchaser

We find them every once in awhile in the deeper water during the summer - while fishing for Bluegill. I think the REs here spawn 2 or 3 times with the CNBGs up through June. We also have hybrid cross CNBG X RE. The REs we catch during the warm months are hitting baitfish style jigs in staging areas where we find the CNBGs feeding (eating hatches, fry, and baitfish). I find the bigger REs fishing the dam in 17 to 26 FOW.

My wife and I used to catch pretty respectable numbers of them in the fall of the year. That was when we lived and fished in Southern Indiana. October was a good month to catch them in 12ft of water, usually in a depression or hump area on the lake bottom.

Now that I've moved down here to Kentucky Lake/Lake Barkley, we only find them in April and May. I've heard of them being caught down here in October by other people. I need to spend more time this fall targeting them in the 12-20ft water depths around mouths of bays, creek channels, mussel beds etc. They've got to feed up for the winter. The one's in Indiana would literally crap all over you when caught in the fall...

I/32 BLACK ROAD RUNNERS WITH 1 INCH BLACK SLIDER. FISH SO SLOW YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT BELL ON THE PRESIDENT REEL TO SEE IF IT'S MOVING . 1 1/2 WILL WORK ALSO BUT ONLY THE BIG BOYS WILL HIT IT . PS. BASS LOVE THEM THO.

How do you guy know where to look in deep water for them?

Early in the year they are scattered in shallow Flats. We have so many Channel cats you catch 12 to 15 cats to every bream and some red ear mixed in, Draging corks in the wind... Worms dont have a chance for the Cats... In the deep water Cats rule and never a red ear... Smaller Bream - Lunch

There's a story on the internet regarding Ky Lake where a bass fisherman named Bill Taylor, targets redear in the summer months. He is apparently an accomplished bass guy and won a whole bunch of tournaments on the bass tours.

He said he drop shots a light action pole in 20-30ft of water in secondary channels or the main channel where humps are present. It makes good sense, the article can be found by googling his name and bluegill/redear, it'll come up.

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Originally Posted by redearhoosier

There's a story on the internet regarding Ky Lake where a bass fisherman named Bill Taylor, targets redear in the summer months. He is apparently an accomplished bass guy and won a whole bunch of tournaments on the bass tours.

He said he drop shots a light action pole in 20-30ft of water in secondary channels or the main channel where humps are present. It makes good sense, the article can be found by googling his name and bluegill/redear, it'll come up.

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I read an article about Mark Davis (another top bass pro) doing the same thing.

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Originally Posted by no luck

How do you guy know where to look in deep water for them?

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long points . Start at tip and fish toward bank ,then Go to normal beds ( blue gills also ) and fan cast away from the bank into 6 ft. or deeper water . knowing the lake shortens the rule cure . Having said that ,I found them yesterday in a different place and I have fished here since the 70's .

Redear love gravel beds where they will eat the mussels they find.One of my favorite lakes here is a lake that was made by the fish and wildlife dept where they flooded an old area over an old highway and creek bed.They had originally made a map to show the gps points for the breeding beds and sunken ceder trees.An old fisherman here once told me to fish over the old railroad and i would catch the redears.I look on the map i have and sure enough it shows an old railroad bed running thru part of the lake.They removed the track before flooding it but the gravel bed remains.I can drop a line over this bed any time of year and catch redears I let the line drop and rest in the gravel or just inches above it and it usually does not take long to catch them.In the warmer weather you can use a small jigging action or slow troll the bait but cold winter months its best to just let it set and they will get it..Small redworms are the best but i have caught them on small crappie jigs,night crawlers,Artificial worms like squirmey worms or chenille worms,small grub imitations.Find a gravel bed and you will find the redears.They are always there in my lake.